05 December 2021

Lost in the 80s tonight


1980s big hair
Don't ask me.
I didn't get the 80s then or now.

Readers, writers, and viewers find anachronisms in novels, movies, and television shows vexing. TV shows and films have deployed LEDs in the 1950s. A novel set in the antebellum Deep South described slaves eating and drinking from bean cans. I annoyed an editing client by explaining his plot could not hinge upon a cell phone call in the early 1970s.

"Are you sure? Maybe you've forgotten."

Tarantino's Django Unchained contained so many time-warp errors, I gave up counting. My number was well into the dozens. And then Tarantino bragged about his research. Next time Quentin should hire an historian. Like one of my SleuthSayers colleagues.

Friends Sharon and Cate forwarded an article about words and phrases that came out of the 1980s. The 80s churned out some great music, but I didn't get leggings, Uggs, or television motorcycle cops sporting carefully coiffed big hair.

Following is a summary of the article with a few comments. Be sure to read the original.

1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

Gordon Matthews invented the voice mail system in 1979 and formed the company VMX (voice message express). By 1980, the phrase and new technology had made its way into the English language.

The comb-over is a bald spot covering hairstyle. Since the 1980s, the comb-over has declined in popularity.

Topoisomerase is an enzyme which alters the supercoiled form of a DNA molecule, first discovered by James C. Wang. Topoisomerase breaks down and rebuilds strands of DNA molecule.

Yuppie is a slang term referring to young, educated adults with well-paying jobs. Mirroring the word hippie, the word is said to be a combination of the words young, urban, and professional coined by Dan Rottenberg.

1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

A type of snow that has acidic properties due to environmental pollutants, used in a 1981 New York Times article chronicling acid snow.

A drug thought to lead people to abuse harder, more serious drugs, which may or may not be accurate.

A term describing the large (and often undeserved in the opinion of some) severance packages given to executives being terminated.

Sleazeball describes a dishonest or sleazy person. Other slang terms with the suffix "-ball" conceived in the 1980s and 1990s include goofball, oddball, and dirtball.

Spreadsheets are used extensively in office and lab environments. Students Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston invented the world's first electronic spreadsheet on the Apple II.

1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

The CDC defined the disease acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, also known as AIDS, as "moderately predictive of a defect in cell-mediated immunity, occurring in a person with no known cause for diminished resistance to that disease."

Barista is an Italian word for a bartender, now used to describe someone who makes coffee or espresso drinks.

Complementary medicine includes alternative treatments like homeopathy and chiropractic medicine used alongside mainstream medicine.

After globalization and industrialization moved manufacturing overseas, the region in the US spanning New York through Michigan and Illinois became known for deteriorating, abandoned factories.

Like the term Valley girl began in the 1980s to denote girls from California's San Fernando Valley, but it later morphed into a stereotype used to describe people who go Valley talk.

1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

Belgian mathematician Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet conceived the equation for body mass index in the 1800s, but not until the 1980s did BMI become the standard for measuring fat.

The first mobile, hand-held phone was created in 1973, but commercial use didn't become viable until Motorola made available cellular phones to Americans in 1983.

FLOTUS stands for First Lady of the United States. POTUS, the acronym for the president, first appeared in 1895 as a shortcut for telegraph operators. FLOTUS came nearly a century later, possibly a code name for Nancy Reagan.

In 1983, the TTAPS study coined the term nuclear winter to describe the extreme cold, high radiation levels, and devastating effects a nuclear war could theoretically cause.

Seasonal affective disorder is defined as a condition often associated with lack of sunlight, particularly due to shorter daylight hours during fall and winter months.

1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

The Eggs Benedict recipe had been a staple of American brunch since the 1970s, but wasn't named as such until 1984.

Streptokinase was first used to break down blood clots in the 1930s, but it wasn't until half a century later that it was used to halt the damaging effects of heart attacks and strokes.

In September 1984, Alec Jeffreys accidentally stumbled on DNA fingerprinting while studying how illnesses transfer through families. DNA fingerprinting has revolutionized crime scene investigations.

Power walking involves walking at a fast pace, often while carrying weights.

The name sriracha is derived from Si Racha, a Thai province where the hot sauce is thought to have originated.

1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

Frankly, I'm surprised this hi-tech language made the list. Its predecessor, the C compiler was developed in universities and at Bell Labs in the 1970s. Bjarne Stroustrup developed an object-oriented version described in the first C++ programming guide. The name is a pun, a reference to the C language ++ operator.

Cosmeceutical combines the words cosmetic and pharmaceutical, informally used to refer to beauty products with supposed medicinal benefits.

The idiom 'elephant in the room' refers to major problems people are unwilling to address.

Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is a severe health condition that can cause depression and anxiety before a woman's menstrual cycle. Causes of PMDD remain unclear.

Tankinis combine bikini bottoms and a tank top.

1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

The sport of bungee jumping gained popularity when AJ Hackett bungee jumped off the Greenhithe Bridge in Auckland, New Zealand.

Crackhead is a slang term used to describe a habitual user of crack cocaine, in the same vein as acidhead and methhead.

The slang word modifies the verb cringe into an adjective by adding the suffix -y. The word denotes something that causes one to feel uncomfortable or embarrassed.

A planogram is a visual floor plan used in office and store space management to optimize floor usage.

Sport-utility vehicles, large conveyances often built on truck chassis, replaced station wagons (estate wagons) popular from the 1950s through the 1970s.

1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

The term describes the effect of alcohol making potential sexual partners more appealing. It was first used in the January 1987 edition of Playboy magazine.

An emoticon, similar to an emoji, combines the words emotion and icon. Carnegie Mellon Professor Dr. Scott Fahlman is credited with developing the first emoticons.

Off-label drugs are used to treat conditions not officially approved by the FDA, sometimes in experimental circumstances.

Shy bladder refers to a social anxiety that makes urinating in public places difficult. Other names for this condition include paruresis and bashful bladder syndrome.

Detroit electronic dance music, made with fast digital rhythms and synthesizers, became popular with U.S. electro-beats becoming a mainstay in European raves.

1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

Boomerang children is a term used to describe young adults who return home after college or work experience to live with their family, often for financial reasons.

Emo music, short for emotional, merges rock and punk rock genres known for its emotional lyrics.

The Kuiper Belt is a region of celestial bodies in the solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune, named after Dutch-born astronomer Gerald A. Kuiper. Astronomers first discovered a Kuiper Belt object in 1930; it took another 62 years to discover the second.

A microloan is a small loan given to impoverished people or groups of people to fund entrepreneurial projects, often attributed to Mohammed Yunus.

Road rage is violent anger directed at the actions of other motorists.

1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

Spy magazine and Science Magazine are credited with using the term air quotes, a gesture to signify the following words in quotation marks. It is said air quotes eliminate responsibility for one's actions.

Generation X members were born in the 1960s and 1970s after baby boomers and before the millennials.

HTML, or hypertext markup language, was developed by Tim Berners-Lee and Jean-François Groff in the 1980s and 1990s. While working at CERN in 1989, Berners-Lee sent a memo advocating for the use of a "hypertext system," and Groff sent a sample to colleagues in the US for comment.

Kimberlé Crenshaw, black feminist author and scholar, invented the word intersectionality in 1989 to describe the intersection of different types of discrimination including race, class, and gender discrimination.

Nightclub singer Rommy Revson invented and patented the scrunchie in the 1980s to contain her hair. The product was initially called "Scunci" before the name was changed to scrunchie.

23 comments:

  1. Vocabulary that makes me want to set a story in the '80's!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My work here is done, Janice. When shall we expect it?

      Actually that could be fun, big-hair cops versus shoulder-padded baddies.

      Delete
  2. Great stroll down memory lane.
    I could have sworn that crackhead started earlier. Microloans were/are also known as "chicken loans" because some places (such as a church I belonged to back in the 1980s) loaned women $$$ to buy chickens (etc.) to help them get an entrepreneurial start.
    I do not miss 1980s fashion: the big hair, the big shoulder pads... Whew.

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    Replies
    1. You're right, Eve. In the 60s, the suffix -head was often used regarding one obsession or another, so when crack hit town, it would seem natural to heard crackhead used. And the fashions… like something from outer space.

      Delete
  3. Interesting! I had no idea some of these started in the 80s.

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    Replies
    1. John, does that bring about any story ideas?

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    2. EVERYthing brings about story ideas.

      Delete
  4. Great post and reference, Leigh.
    I recently read a book supposedly set in England in the 1920s. The expressions "go with the flow," "What just happened?" and the word "Input" as a synonym for criticism or commentary all appeared in the first few chapters. It got worse and so did the plot.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, Steve. A good editor should have flagged those even if the writer didn't know the difference. We need an age-appropriate slang checker!

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  5. Fascinating list. Of course, I'm waaaay too young to remember the 80s...
    Jokes aside, with the knowledge of the ages at our finger-tips, it seems unforgivable for so many anachronisms (and other factual errors) to appear in books, news, films, reporting, conversation, and, and, and.
    Not exactly an anachronism, but a quick check would have saved the governor of Texas before he spoke of nothing being done to prevent Omicron-laden South Africans illegally crossing the southern border into the USA. We are of hardy stock, but, even for us, that's one heck of a swim!

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    Replies
    1. ABA, I've had debates with baby Wikipedia editors who don't seem to recognize the difference between extant and extinct.

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  6. I know I've ordered Eggs Benedict by that name as early as the 1960s.

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    Replies
    1. Elizabeth, I believe you and thank you. I think they got that item wrong. See Rob's comment below.

      Delete
  7. Eggs Benedict in a 1919 cookbook. In an upcoming column I will explain how I found this. https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Hotel_St_Francis_Cook_Book/sTkEAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22eggs+benedict%22&pg=PA420&printsec=frontcover

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    Replies
    1. Excellent, Rob. Elizabeth and I knew 1984 didn't sound right. Big Brother is messing with us. I look forward to your article.

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    2. I have set the column to run on December 15th.

      Delete
  8. The Kuiper Belt

    I immediately thought this was a reference to Duane Kuiper, the offensively-challenged infielder who played for the Cleveland Indians (Guardians, now) and the SF Giants (1974-1985, combined). While I have always found this to be hard to believe, he hit 1 HR in 3754 plate appearances. There was only 1 Kuiper Belt, so the plural form was what made me think he had to be the subject.

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    Replies
    1. I knew about the 1 dinger, but had to look up some of the details of his career.

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    2. Don, perhaps you're right after all. That one home run could have made a hell of an asteroid, which might explain why finding objects in the Kuiper Belt is so rare. At least that's one story, Don.

      Delete
  9. Wow! I was a twenty-something in the Eighties and I hadn't heard of some of these!

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    Replies
    1. Jeff, we believe you. We all know how sober you were in your 20s and never smoked anything you shouldn't.

      (Earlier today a comment you'd made to a 2017 article about plasticized corpses had me laughing. You'd said that's why you planned to be cremated.)

      Delete

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